Placement of Replies to Non-OP Posts

I'm with you Corey, having them posted via time makes all the sub-threading hard to read.

 

Will definitely miss the threading/nested views but...

Wondering if there is a "down arrow" that scrolls down to the next reply to a particular post? Similar to how the "up arrow" takes you to the post from which the reply occurred. If the "down arrow" is available, it would make it much easier to follow a discussion than the current format allows. Any chance?

 

I guess I'm in the minority in not missing the nested views. I prefer the convenience of not having new posts scattered up and down the page.

 

I can see the benefits of both options - it's nice to have all the new posts start at one point and continue down from there instead of being sprinkled throughout a long thread, but it was also really nice having related posts grouped together visually.

I for one would rather have the nesting back, but if it's off the table it's off the table.

 

I can't stand the nested format. This way just seems right. 99% of all message boards out there act this way, I suppose I'm just used to it.

 

If 99% of the message boards jumped off a cliff, would you do that, too?

Seriously, though, I thought the old forums on here were among the very best ones on the web: no distracting smilies/gifs/pics/signatures cluttering up every page, and easy-to-follow nesting that made back-and-forth discussions easy to conduct and read. I appreciate lots of the new features (many of which are undoubtedly improvements), but the flow of conversation within threads has taken a HUGE step backwards.

 

Explain how the flow of conversation within threads has taken a step backwards? I was notified that someone replied to this thread and I read your reply to my post, because you quoted my post, and was able to reply to it easily by quoting yours so there is no confusion on who I'm talking to.

I would like to see signatures, but text only. No images. I'm with you on that one. I could go either way with smilies. I never use them, nor do I care if I see them.

 

Our current repartee isn't a terribly good example of my case, since there haven't been any unrelated posts intervening to break up the flow - in the old style, only progressive indentation and the lack of automatic copying/quotation would have looked any different.

In busier threads, though, a direct conversation like ours would have been broken apart by numerous other posts. Let's say that the OP was A, your post B, my response to you B1, your response to me B2, etc. In the old system, the line of posts/replies would have gone: A, B, B1, B2, B3, Bx, C, D, etc, with all the replies indented immediately after the posts to which they're responding. In the new system, this same conversation could appear as A, B, C, D, B1, E, B2, B3, F, G, H, I, B4, J, B5, etc. For anyone not immediately involved in the B line of responses (i.e., anyone not receiving the very, very handy alerts), following our specific conversation is much harder under the new system. Under the old system it was easy to view the entirety of a sub-discussion before jumping in, but now you have to read the entire thread before you can be sure you've read all the related posts and won't be making a redundant point.

I know that I, at least, am much less likely to reply to a post in the middle of a thread now than I was before, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Therefore, I find the new system to discourage give-and-take exchanges within threads.

 

I can see where you're coming from. I am so used to finding the most recent replies at the end of the post, rather than nested under the quoted post. I can see the usefulness of the old way, and if I'm not mistaken most message board software lets users choose between the current view and nested view. Strange that this one doesn't.

 

Server strain aside, what is the advantage of...not having a reply directly underneath the post in which the reply is to? Sure, the poster of a message that was replied to CAN get the alert...but for someone jumping into the thread, the flow of conversation is most definitely compromised....

Obviously this forum isn't engineered for it - I just struggle to see why anyone would be against indentation-based responses...